Two McDonald's Happy Meals with toy watches fashioned after the characters Donkey and Puss in Boots from the movie "Shrek Forever After" are pictured in Los Angeles June 22. A U.S. consumer group wants McDonald's to stop using Happy Meal toys to lure children into its restaurants. San Francisco is considering a Happy Meal ban.

McDonald's has launched a spirited defense of the iconic meals, which have been part of the chain's menu since 1979, more than 30 years. The meals are a way to draw families to its restaurants, a key demographic for a global chain hungry for customers.

In April, for example, Santa Clara, Calif., banned restaurants in its unincorporated areas from offering toys with any meal that has more than 485 calories. There are also limits on sodium. The rules effectively ruled out Happy Meals.

Now, San Francisco's suggested ban is getting attention – and stirring a backlash from critics, who call it unwanted interference by a nanny government. Parents should make meal decisions for their children, not government, they say.

McDonald's CEO, Jim Skinner, argued along the same lines in his written response to CSPI: "Our customer websites and phone lines at McDonald's are also busy, with more than nine out of ten customers disagreeing with your agenda. Parents, in particular, strongly believe they have the right and responsibility to decide what's best for their children, not CSPI," he wrote.

"It seems that you purposefully skewed your evaluation of our Happy Meals by putting them in the context of a highly conservative 1,300 calorie per day requirement," he added. "I'm sure you know this category generally applies to the youngest and most sedentary children."

In May, McDonald's reached a milestone. Exactly 70 years ago, the original McDonald brothers, Maurice and Richard, opened their first restaurant about 350 miles south of Santa Clara in San Bernardino, Calif. That means the Happy Meal has been part of the McDonald's menu for nearly half the restaurant's history.

Today, McDonald's has more than 30,000 restaurants in 117 nations. No word yet on whether San Bernardino – or Stuttgart – want to ban the Happy Meal, too.

(See the video below. Translation from the German: "The fun starts here.")